


Carter and Barnes

by watcherofworlds



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Injury, Mentions of Barnes Family History, female bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-14
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8553451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: Peggy Carter and Rebecca Barnes bond in somewhat unusual circumstances.





	

“Steve,” Rebecca said without looking up from what she was doing. “You’re hovering.”

“Oh,” Steve said quietly. “Sorry.” He backed up, but only slightly, and began pacing the length of the hospital tent. Bucky smirked and opened his mouth to speak, but Rebecca shot him a look that quite clearly said  _ Now is not the time or the place, Jimmy, _ and he closed it again. Rebecca had inherited her mother’s sharp tongue, and few people were willing to cross her, but especially not her brother.

Rebecca bit her lip anxiously, her stomach churning. She found it deeply unsettling that she was digging around with a forceps in the flesh of Agent Carter’s shoulder and pulling bullets out of her, and, aside from the occasional uncomfortable shift like she had an itch she couldn't scratch,  _ she wasn’t even reacting _ . Despite having been an Army nurse for over a year now, Rebecca still wasn’t used to the effect morphine had on people, nor did she think she ever would be. Steve's pacing and obvious worry weren't helping matters-in fact, Rebecca was sure that they were making her own anxiety worse.

“I’m going to need you to calm down, Steve,” she said, more calmly than she felt. “You’re making the patients nervous.” 

_ More importantly _ , she thought but didn’t say,  _ you’re making  _ me  _ nervous. _ Steve came to a stop in the hesitant, jerky manner of a wind-up toy powering down. He was, however, still visibly distressed, and Rebecca sighed.

         “She's right,” Agent Carter spoke up. “You need to calm down. You're overreacting.” The effect her words had on Steve was immediate. His tense posture loosened. He let out a sigh, and his shoulders relaxed. Rebecca was, quite frankly, shocked. The only person who had  _ ever _ been able to calm Steve down like that before was her brother. She glanced over at him, expecting her own shock to be mirrored on his face, but oddly enough his expression hadn't shifted from his earlier smirk. 

“Go on Steve,” Agent Carter continued, drawing Rebecca’s attention back to her and Steve. “I’m sure you have something that you should  be doing right now. I’ll be fine. I’m in good hands.” Rebecca grinned, amused by how warm and fuzzy a compliment from a near stranger had made her feel.  Steve nodded once, a quick, birdlike motion, and headed out of the hospital tent.

“And take Barnes with you!” Agent Carter called after him as he left, but she needn’t have bothered-Bucky was already following him out. A moment later, Rebecca and Agent Carter were alone.

“That was interesting how you were able to calm Steve down so easily,” Rebecca remarked as she finished her work and began bandaging up the wounds on Agent Carter’s shoulder. “I’ve never seen anyone but Jimmy do that before.”

“Jimmy?” Agent Carter asked.

“Sorry, Sergeant Barnes,” Rebecca replied sheepishly, grateful that Agent Carter couldn’t see her blushing. “Sometimes I forget I’m the only person who calls him Jimmy.”

“And why, may I ask,  _ do _ you call him that?” Agent Carter wanted to know.

“Well, because he’s my brother,” Rebecca said, with just a touch of embarrassment.

“Ah,” Agent Carter replied, her voice quiet. After a long, somewhat awkward pause, she added, “Strange how I didn’t put that together before.”

          “To be honest, I don't blame you,” Rebecca said. “It's not like we advertised it. Jimmy didn't want people to think that he was the reason why I have this job.” 

          “I can't say that I disagree with him on that,” Agent Carter replied. “Still, the two of you look enough alike that I really should have realized that you were related sooner.”

          “Sometimes I think we look  _ too _ much alike,” Rebecca muttered. “The other Commandos keep treating me like a smaller, younger, female version of him and I hate it.” 

          “Not Steve though, I imagine,” Agent Carter remarked, a smile in her voice.

          “No, not Steve,” Rebecca admitted, “but that might just be because he holds Jimmy in such esteem- in his mind,  _ no one _ can be like him.”

“I am often astounded by their friendship,” Agent Carter said. 

“You and me both,” Rebecca replied with a laugh. “Their friendship is what landed me here in the first place- I helped Jimmy patch Steve up after fights a lot, and I figured I might as well put those skills to good use. I love Jimmy with all my heart, even if he does drive me crazy sometimes. I can’t imagine what I’d do without him.” Agent Carter suddenly stiffened beneath Rebecca’s hands, as though something she’d said had struck a nerve.

“Agent Carter?” she asked nervously. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, not wrong,” Agent Carter assured her. “It’s just… I used to be where you are. I used to not be able to imagine life without my brother, but now that’s the life I live everyday.”

“I'm sorry to hear about your loss,” Rebecca said as she finished bandaging her patient with quick, deft movements. “I hope I never experience such a loss myself.”

           “I hope you don't either,” Agent Carter replied quietly. There was pain in her voice, deep and raw, that made Rebecca's heart ache for her. 

           “I'm all done,” she said, stepping back. “Come see me if you have any more problems. After all, it’s my job to keep you and the rest of the Commandos in fighting shape.” 

           “I’ll keep that in mind,” Agent Carter said, getting to her feet and stretching her arms over her head experimentally. “Thank you.”

           “Mmhmm,” Rebecca replied absentmindedly, already moving on to other things. “Enjoy the rest of your day.”

           “You too,”Agent Carter said as she left, and then Rebecca was left alone to tend to the rest of her patients.

           Some time later, at the end of her shift, Rebecca wandered into the mess tent, searching for something with which to alleviate the hunger currently gnawing a hole in her stomach. The moment she stepped inside she was greeted by the sight and sound of the Commandos, sitting together in a tight group, almost shoulder to shoulder, talking and laughing raucously. She saw a bottle being passed around among them, and thought it very likely that they were extremely drunk. A moment after that, she noticed something rather unusual- Agent Carter, sitting by herself, away from the other Commandos.

           “You didn't want to sit with them?” Rebecca asked, sitting down across from her, jerking her head toward the noisy group nearby.

          “I'm too tired to deal with their nonsense at the moment,” Agent Carter said wearily, though there was was affection in the way she said “nonsense”.

“I hear you,” Rebecca said, nodding. “They can be pretty exhausting at times.”

“Indeed,” Agent Carter agreed emphatically. They lapsed into silence after that. Rebecca looked down at her hands. Her fingernails were rimmed with red. She could never quite manage to get all of the dried blood out from around them, no matter how thoroughly she washed her hands between patients. 

“Nurse Barnes?” Agent Carter asked after a moment, jolting Rebecca out of her reverie. In truth, it had taken her a second to realize that it was her that Agent Carter was speaking to- “Nurse Barnes” sounded foreign to her ears, wrong, as wrong as “Sergeant Barnes” or “Captain Rogers”. 

“Hmmm?” Rebecca replied, distracted, because her attention had already drifted again, this time toward the Commandos. With a jolt, she realized that Steve, unlike his companions, wasn’t drunk. Now granted, she had never actually  _ seen _ him drunk, but Bucky had, and he had described it to her well enough for her to know what it looked like.

“Are you-”

“He’s not drunk,” Rebecca blurted, cutting Agent Carter off mid sentence before she’d fully processed that she was speaking.

“-alright?” Agent Carter finished, then frowned. “What?”

“Steve,” Rebecca said, nodding in his direction. “He’s not drunk. The rest of the Commandos are, but not him.”

“Oh,” Agent Carter said. Her voice had gone oddly hoarse. “He… he can’t. Get drunk, I mean. Not anymore.” The two women lapsed into silence for a second time, mostly because Rebecca wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that statement. She glanced over at Steve again, laughing with the other Commandos, grinning broadly, and her stomach clenched. She’d had a crush on him when she was sixteen, and though those days were long since gone she still occasionally had flashes of old feelings, as if, just for a moment, even though her brain knew that she no longer felt that way, her heart forgot.

“Agent Carter,” she spoke up as something occurred to her

“Call me Peggy,” Agent Carter put in.

“Alright, Peggy then,” Rebecca said, allowing herself a small smile. “If Steve can’t get drunk, does that mean that other things won’t affect him either? Things like anesthetic? When I patch him up… will he still feel it?” Peggy was silent, but nodded.

“Well,” Rebecca said, and now it was her voice that had gone hoarse with emotion, “at least that won’t change.”

“Are you alright?” Peggy asked. “You seem...strangely emotional.” Rebecca didn’t answer at first. She was too busy thinking that she could have asked the same of Peggy. It was becoming clear that she and Steve had a connection beyond his humongous-and very obvious- crush on her, but Rebecca didn’t think she would ever know what it was. Finally, she said, “I’m fine. It’s just...so much in my life has changed recently. So much about  _ Steve _ has changed, and I guess I’m just relieved that at least one thing about him will stay the same.”

“Everything that changed about Steve is physical,” Peggy assured her. “He’s still very much the man you and James knew, I promise.” Rebecca hummed assent, but still didn’t quite believe her. There was a long pause where neither of them spoke or did much of anything except watch Steve and the Commandos and try to pretend like they weren’t watching them. Finally Peggy stood up.

“Well, I think I’ll turn in,” she said, stifling a yawn. “Have a good night Nurse Barnes.”

“Thank you,” Rebecca replied. “And Peggy? It’s Rebecca.” Peggy paused, her red painted lips curving upwards in a smile.

“Alright,” she said. “Goodnight Rebecca.”

“Goodnight,” Rebecca replied with a smile of her own, and watched Peggy disappear out into the night.


End file.
